When you don’t own a vehicle but have a license, your best option is non-owners auto insurance. It provides protection for an individual who drives other’s vehicles. In most cases, the non-owners’ policy coverage only includes property damage liability, bodily injury liability, uninsured motorist, and medical payments. Non-owner policies don’t consist of collision or comprehensive coverage. The coverage is designed to pay for damage to the owned vehicle for perils such as theft, collision, or fire while you are responsible for it. Since the policy doesn’t cover owned cars, this coverage cannot be purchased.
Coverage only affects the person registered on the declarations page and does not extend to household members. If an accident were to occur, the non-owner policy is designed to pay after the car policy coverage is depleted. It is meant to be a secondary policy. Therefore, a non-owner policy is not intended for teenagers that want to be covered when driving their parents’ car. If an accident occurs and it is the teenager’s fault, the parent’s primary policy will not provide coverage, as the teenager is not insured and the non-owner policy only offers coverage for the teen. Therefore, the parent’s interests are not protected in this situation.
Non owner policies were designed for a person that does not own any vehicle and does not have consistent access to a particular vehicle including work vehicles. Additionally, you cannot add drivers to this type of policy. Only the person who was issued the policy will receive coverage.
Usually coverage is not provided for the following vehicles registered to the policyholder, vehicles that are work related or are non-private passenger type vehicles, and vehicles owned by members of your household.
If you own a vehicle, non-owner car insurance is not the type of car insurance you need. It only protects you when you are driving a vehicle in which you have no ownership of any kind.
It is also important to keep in mind that if you get an automobile after buying a non-owner policy, you must add that vehicle immediately after acquisition and pay any additional premium if necessary. Some people will purchase a vehicle and forget to put it on their policy thinking that the vehicle is insured.